Newsletter May 2025
Building a community that enjoys a rich quality of life for all ages, brings a more equitable society, and a harmonious and responsible relationship with the natural world.
Moving Day is just around the corner! It has taken us many years and many people to get to this point. We are so grateful for all the people who have been involved over the years, contributing in invaluable ways to the creation of Twin Cities Family Cooperative. And it’s just the beginning… we can’t wait to see what and who comes next!
Upcoming Events
In an attempt to not fill your inbox with unwanted emails, we don’t send out reminders throughout the month. If you would like to receive email reminders before each event, email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com and say “sign me up for reminders.” You can specify if you only want reminders about online events and not in-person events.
Virtual Open House for National Cohousing Week - Interested in learning about our community or ready to start the process of becoming a member? This is the place to start! Please email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com to let us know you will be attending or with any questions. Letting us know who will be attending is helpful for us in preparing. Thanks!
Monday April 28th 8:00-9:00pm (use this link)
Sunday May 4th 10:00-11:00am (use this link)
Monthly Potluck - Sunday, May 18 noon-2:00pm
Bring a chair and a dish to share… at our new property! This will be during one of our work days but if you can’t come for the work day, you are still welcome at the potluck. We’ll provide sandwiches, drinks, and compostable dishes. We have some seating but if you have a chair, bring it along. Please email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com to let us know if you plan to attend. Also let us know if you have any dietary restrictions.
Community Work Days - Our community is coming together … but it takes a community to make it happen! We need your help to make the huge transition into our new community home. Please join us for one or more of our work days or let us know if there’s another time that you would be able to lend a hand. See more details below on ways you may be able to help.
May 6th-10th (various times): in White Bear Lake and in Minneapolis at the new property
May 18th 9am-6pm (potluck lunch): at the new property
Summer Cohousing Potluck - Sunday, July 20 3:00-6:00pm
Twin Cities Family Cooperative is co-hosting this summer’s Cohousing Picnic on Sunday, July 29th, along with Twin Cities Cohousing Network. See their website for more details and to RSVP (make sure to choose the one in St. Paul). There will be games for children and adults, food, and a chance to meet and hang out with cohousing groups and interested folks.
Check our website or facebook page for events in the coming months. If you can't make it to these events and you want to connect, email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com. We’d be happy to connect in person or online.
Closing Date and What Comes Next
We have a closing date! We are closing on our property on May 5th! We’ll spend the next couple weeks getting it ready and moving in. To start with, we will occupy 2 units and the current tenants will remain in the other 5 until we have community members ready to move into those units. One of the units will also be our community space, with a kitchen, dining room, and living room where we can gather and share meals. We’re hoping there will be room for our piano in there as well. We plan to have several other community rooms such as an exercise room, a playroom for the kids, and a library/game and puzzle room. Outside there’s space for a large trampoline and space for kids to play. We’re working with an architect to design more gathering space as well as indoor and outdoor parking. We’re hoping we can build a garage with living units above it.
Moving Days and Community Work Days!
Our community is coming together … but it takes a community to make it happen!
We need your help to make the huge transition into our new community home.
Now that we have a property, there’s lots of work to do and it will take a community to do it. Some of the work will need to be done by professionals but a lot of it we can do ourselves with help from you!
We’re trying to get as many people as we can to come May 6th-10th to get the property ready to move into and to help us move in. There will likely also be more work the next week. May 18th will be a work day and lunch will be our monthly potluck.
There will be many ways to help out including:
Loading and unloading the moving truck
Cleaning
Taping and mudding wall cracks
Painting walls
Minor maintenance, electrical, plumbing, and carpentry projects
Feeding everyone
Most of the work will be at our new property in Minneapolis but we will also need people who can help us move out of the house in White Bear Lake.
Please email us if you can help out on one of the days listed above or if there’s another day that works for you. Thanks so much for participating in creating our community’s first home!
Cooperative Culture Study Group
For months we have been exploring Cooperative Culture values and practices based on Yana Ludwig’s and Karen Gimnig’s book “The Cooperative Culture Handbook.” If you want to read what we’ve written, check out our past newsletters. We’ve taken a break from writing about Cooperative Culture for a few months while we’re busy with the big move but Yana is starting a study group to study these values Sunday mornings starting May 11th. You can sign up for all 26 weeks or just a few. Here is the link with more information and registration. You can find other really great courses and resources on the FIC website. Remember, Exploratory Members can use up to $200 of their $500 member fee to take classes and get reimbursed for them.
Past Newsletters
It’s finally happened! You can now find all our past newsletters on our website. The page still needs a little work to look nice but all the newsletters dating back to April 2024 are there. In our newsletters, you can read about our values, how we’re doing finances, where we’re at with property, membership, and more!
Our Vision
We are an intergenerational community of individuals, couples, and families. We are queer-affirming, gender-inclusive, and multicultural. We value the spectrums of the human experience and each individual’s diverse abilities. We support each other in raising children and throughout all stages of life.
We strive to live out of a place of abundance. We develop internal economic policies that actively push back against capitalist expectations, while also making compromises to allow members to maintain their financial autonomy.
We are committed to nonviolence and environmental sustainability. We believe in the potential for radical transformation of society and see communal living as an element of that change. We strive to make meaningful contributions to society, engaged in dismantling the systems of racism and oppression in our society.
If you would like to learn more about Twin Cities Family Cooperative, please visit our website and facebook page, attend our events (online and in-person), or fill out our Interest Form to connect. All past newsletters can be found here. If you would like to be removed from our email list, please email us and let us know.
